| Agnipath Scheme In June 2022, the government announced the Agnipath scheme for the recruitment of soldiers into the armed forces for four years, doing away with the earlier process. The age bracket for the new recruits was fixed at 17.5 years to 21 years of age. The overall intake has been capped at 1.75 lakh till 2026, and Agniveers on completion of four years will get an opportunity to join a regular cadre and up to 25% would be selected through another recruitment process. |
As the Agnipath scheme for the recruitment of soldiers into the three services completes two years, the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), headed by the Chief of Defence Staff, has sought feedback from the forces on the scheme.
- Deliberations are going on over increasing the intake size per batch from around 46,000 and also the recruitment to permanent cadre from 25% to 50% as the services.
- It has been learnt that the headquarters at various levels of the Army had sent agenda points on the Agnipath scheme for the Army Commanders Conference, the apex biannual deliberations.
- All recruitment in the forces for soldiers, sailors, and airmen is now being done through the Agnipath scheme.
- There was no recruitment during the pandemic for over two and a half years.
- Around 60,000 soldiers retire from the Army every year which has led to a significant shortage.
- The government had stated that the Agnipath scheme would bring down the average age of the armed forces from 32 to 26 years in line with the age profile of major armies across the world.
Dig Deeper: Compare benefits to recruits under the old recruitment scheme and Agnipath Scheme.
